A mother and daughter nearly died after an old grenade exploded in their home.
38-year-old Jodie Crews from Deal, England, was stunned when she came across what resembled an old bone or a fossil while exploring the beach.
After the mother brought the object home, she and her 8-year-old daughter, Isabella, were thrilled to further examine the thing and see what it really was. Little did they know, however, that their decision could cost them their lives.
As Ms. Crews revealed, the object she found on the beach was actually a WW2 grenade that burst into flames when she poked it with a hot pin.
“I posted photos on fossil and archaeology sites and had lots of replies but no one suggested it could be a grenade,” the mother recalled.
“One woman thought it looked like whale vomit and said I could find out by poking it with a hot pin. She said a puff of white smoke would come out.”
Rather than a puff of smoke, however, the grenade resulted in a dangerous fireball after the pair decided to examine it.
“It just turned into a fireball. My daughter screamed and ran out the back door. I grabbed the grenade and ran with it at arms’ length into the kitchen where I hurled it into the sink. We just went into survival mode,” Crews added.
“I then rushed upstairs to soak a towel to throw over it to put it out. The adrenalin must have kicked in and taken over.
“My first thought was to save my daughter, house, cats and dogs. With my daughter safely in the garden I ran back upstairs to get the cats – we have four three-week-old kittens – and rounded up our two dogs, Teegan a border collie and Lulu a Pomeranian.”
Eventually, the grenade burned itself out and the firefighters arrived at the scene to secure the home.
“I have been told not to drink out of the taps as some of the chemicals from the grenade might have gone up them. It was a fireman who said it was a grenade. He said it was normally covered in a protective coating of wax,” Crews revealed.
“Isabella had been asking for a metal detector for Christmas. I think she might end up with a Nintendo Switch instead after this incident. It will be safer.”
As the mother concluded, she and her daughter were incredibly lucky to have survived the incident unscathed.
“We were unbelievably lucky. It could have been a hundred times worse. All my friends have made me promise not to pick anything up from the beach again,” Crews said.
Replaced!